In view of the limited band width of the frequency band of simple tape video recording and reproducing apparatuses for home use a color television signal can be recorded only with losses in quality and after a considerable transformation of the original video signals.
For example, in a widely used European system of recording and reproduction, the brightness and chrominance signals are separated from each other. A carrier frequency located at about 4 MHz is frequency-modulated with the brightness signal, which is limited to 2.7 MHz. The chrominance signal is moved out of its original frequency position into a new frequency range, which is located lower than that of the lower side bands of the frequency-modulated brightness signals. Thereafter the frequency-converted color signals are added and recorded.
Japanese systems, which also were developed especially for home use, use essentially the same principle. Both systems suffer from serious disadvantages. The procedure is intricate and includes many possibilities for error, if the luminance and chrominance signals are separated, processed in a different manner and then put together again. The frequency band width of the brightness signal must be narrowed. Since a portion of the tape recorded information is contained in the amplitude, the advantage of frequency modulation largely is lost. The track width cannot be reduced below a certain minimum figure and the color information is recorded at a relatively large wave length. The danger of cross-talk and especially cross-color disturbances between neighboring tracks exists just where it is most conspicuous. This can be avoided by the provision of guard bands between the tracks, but because the guard bands do not carry any information a large amount of tape is needed.
If guard bands between adjacent tracks are omitted, adjacent tracks are recorded and read at different azimuth angles, and the polarity of the color information is changed from line to line, which requires not only additional electronics but requires a radically different lay-out of the whole electronic circuit, depending upon whether the apparatus is to be used for NTSC, PAL or SECAM.